Various types of facilities are used for transporting data communications. These types include a variety of metallic (non-carrier), analog carrier and digital carrier facilities. In the present public switched telephone network (PSTN), data rates of 9600 baud are routinely carded and data rates of up to 28.8 baud are contemplated. In general, the maximum data rate which can be transported in a given situation varies with the facility assigned to transport the communications. The data transport connection between network end-points may be a single facility or may be a combination of several facilities. In the former situation, the maximum data rate that may be allocated to the customer is that which may be transported by the assigned facility while in the latter situation the maximum data rate allocated to the customer is the data rate of the facility having the smallest maximum data rate in the facility combination. Complicating this process is the fact that the facility or facility combination assigned to a given connection may vary each time the connection is requested by the customer. As a result, the maximum data rate allocated to the customer can't exceed the maximum data rate transportable by the facility in the pool of such facilities which may be assigned to a particular connection. In applications where the data rate allocated to the customer using the above-described process is not acceptable, a facility or a combination of facilities or a subset of facilities types can be preassigned to transport data in a given application. While this solution meets a customer's data rate requirements, the preassignment restricts network facility management and often results in an increased network usage cost to the customer. Consequently, it would be extremely desirable if a technique could be devised which would permit greater data rates in a manner which would be transparent to an unrestricted network facility management scheme and, therefore, not likely to result in an increase of the network usage cost assessed to the customer.